Recipe For Fun: Backyard Beach!

There's something magical about summer. We want to soak up the sun, relax and sometimes get wet.

The actual beach

The problem is that many of us, myself included, often suffer from a deplorable level of laziness. Which brings me to a recent, warm and sunny weekend afternoon, during which we wanted to be outside but couldn't pick between the beach, the park, the dog park, or the lake. Since all of those options required more effort than any of us cared to give, I came up with an alternative:  the backyard "beach."

 This was a great success, so I highly recommend it if you too find yourself in that inertia mode, caught between your interest in having some outdoor summer fun and little motivation to make it happen. It took less than 5 minutes to set up our backyard beach. I wish I had been thinking like a blogger and actually photographed it. But I'll create a good mental picture for you.


Our sandbox is shaped like a boat and is always there. All we had to do was move our patio chairs into the driveway beside the yard, grab some towels and beach accessories, such as the toucan floatie pictured below, and set up the sprinkler. Our sprinkler is not an actual sprinkler meant for lawn care; it's actually a toy made for kids and shoots water off in many different directions at once. We put our swim gear and sunscreen on and had a blast, all without having to go anywhere!

Anna and Mr. Toucan at the lake

I could view this as the pinnacle of laziness, but I choose to see it as a creative solution to a dilemma that allowed us to enjoy some outdoor summer activity and family time all at once, with the minimal effort involved leaving us more time for fun. Plus, we didn't have to deal with the slight drawbacks of the real beach: crazy crowds, freezing ocean water, and Anna's disdain for seaweed.

And did I mention it was free? (Well, except for the pizza we ate for dinner.) But hey, almost free is good.

What fun summer activities have you created for your kids?  Share them here in the comments!